The orchestra’s upcoming performances in Tokyo, which will include their debut at the prestigious Suntory Hall, as well as concerts in Yokohama, Fukuoka, and Nagoya, will take the ensemble, at home on Berlin’s historic Gendarmenmarkt square, to some of the most important concert halls throughout Japan.

The programme for Christoph Eschenbach’s farewell tour as principal conductor of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin includes all four symphonies by Johannes Brahms, with a CD having been released in 2021. Midori, a long-time musical companion of Eschenbach’s and a violinist of worldwide renown, will play the solo part in Robert Schumann’s Violin Concerto. For Antonín Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, the young Japanese cellist Haruma Sato, who won the International ARD Music Competition in Munich in 2019, has been confirmed as soloist.
As a special greeting from Gendarmenmarkt, where Carl Maria von Weber’s opera “Der Freischütz” premiered in 1821, nearly all of the concerts will begin with the Freischütz Overture.

Christoph Eschenbach on his relationship with Japan and Japanese audiences, which has deepened over the span of decades:

“It is always a very special experience and a great pleasure to play with an orchestra in Japan. We all know the outward signs of enthusiasm there: the auditorium is always full. And after every concert, countless individuals gather in lengthy queues, holding albums in hopes of receiving autographs and expressing their gratitude. In Japan, there really is an enormous understanding of music that is rooted in a tendency towards inwardness. Only those who possess this inclination can truly comprehend the very essence of music. I was in Japan for the first time in 1969 as a pianist. I fell in love with the country, literally absorbed the culture and have identified with it ever since.”